Website Design for SEO: How to Build Sites That Rank and Convert

If you’re trying to optimize for SEO after a site launch, you’re already playing catch-up. We’ve seen it happen: a business spends months and thousands on a stunning redesign only to watch their traffic plummet. 

One client's new site lost 40% of its organic visits overnight, along with key marketing KPIs, just because SEO was treated as a post-launch cleanup job rather than a guiding principle during design. 

That mistake is more costly than most people realize. According to the FirstPageSage report, SEO can deliver an average ROI of 748%, but only if it’s part of the foundation, not a patch.

At TodayMade, we’ve learned this the hard way and made it a rule: successful SEO starts early, during planning, structure, and design, not just the copy and metadata. 

In this post, we’ll share how our design team learned that designing with SEO in mind from day one is the key to building sites that rank and convert.

What is SEO web design? (Designing for humans and search engines)

“SEO web design” means crafting your website so that both humans and search engines can easily use it, understand it, and trust it right from the start. 

An SEO-optimized website design blends great user experience (UX), solid site architecture, fast performance, clear content hierarchy, and accessibility into the site’s very structure. 

At TodayMade, we see SEO web design as the intersection of smart structure and thoughtful experience. Your content should be crawlable. Your navigation should guide real people and search engines exactly where they need to go without friction or confusion.

In other words, when web design and SEO work together, the result isn’t just impressive; it’s effective. The best-performing sites follow a set of foundational practices, and below, we’re breaking them down by category.

Web design SEO best practices by category

So, how do you actually do SEO-minded design? Here are some of the most important best practices we live by. Consider this our internal playbook to ensure every site we build is primed to rank well and delight users.

Technical and structural foundations

These are the behind-the-scenes aspects of design and development that make your site friendly to search engines:

Clean, crawlable code

Use lean HTML/CSS and avoid platforms or themes that generate bloated code. (We’ve all seen those page builders spilling endless <div> containers.) The simpler and cleaner your code, the easier for bots to crawl. Plus, clean code usually means faster load times.

Reddit user by nickname Datarider recommends, “Vanilla HTML, vanilla CSS and vanilla JS for the front-end, vanilla PHP for the back-end, MySQL for the database. No frameworks. You don't need them for this. Back to the basics - it's simple to write and easy to maintain.”

Semantic HTML and Headings

Structure pages with a logical heading hierarchy – one H1 per page, clear H2 sections, H3 sub-sections, etc. Also, use proper tags for content (e.g., <nav> for navigation, <article> for blog content). Semantic HTML5 tags give crawlers context about each part of your page.

As one Redditor shared, “...Semantic HTML and UX componentization are important things I always consider. It'll save time long term and make things easier to maintain. Always develop with performance and accessibility in mind because "doing it later" will never come.”

XML Sitemap and Robots.txt

These technical basics should be part of your site setup, not an afterthought. Plan from day one to have an updated sitemap.xml so search engines can easily find all your pages.

A robots.txt serves as a set of ground rules for search engine crawlers, controlling which parts of your site they’re allowed to access and, in some cases, to prevent certain files from being crawled or indexed. But its effect varies depending on the file type. Here’s how it works across common content formats (based on Google):

Mobile-friendly and responsive

Over 60% of traffic is on phones now, and Google uses mobile-first indexing. So, design everything mobile-first. Make sure layouts adapt to different screens gracefully, text is readable without zooming, and buttons/links are thumb-friendly. A responsive, mobile-optimized design prevents SEO penalties and keeps users happy on any device.

Fast loading times

Site speed is a design concern as much as a technical one. Compress images, minify code, and avoid heavy scripts. Aim for pages to load in under ~2–3 seconds. Faster sites not only rank better (Google's Core Web Vitals factor) but also prevent users from bouncing.

The Redditor highlights several proven approaches that consistently work, “Page speed Very important these days using a light weight design or template that would weigh the site down. but keep in fast and responsive…” 

Content hierarchy and layout

How you organize and present content on each page is critical for SEO and conversions:

• Clear information architecture: Plan your site’s structure in logical sections or “silos” (for example, grouping pages under /services/, /blog/, /case-studies/). This helps visitors find info quickly and also helps search engines understand your content themes.
  
  
• One primary topic per page: Each page should have a clear focus. During design, avoid trying to cram too many disparate topics together. It’s better to have separate pages for separate topics (which aligns with a solid keyword strategy). For instance, don’t mix “About Us” info with a blog post on the same page; give each its own home.
  
  
• Above-the-fold value proposition: The design should highlight your main message or value at the top of the page (what users see without scrolling). Whether it’s a blog post or a SaaS landing page, ensure your H1 and a brief intro or call-to-action are prominent up top, clearly reinforcing the page’s purpose and relevance.
  
  
• Prominent calls to action (CTAs): An SEO-friendly page isn’t just about getting traffic – it’s about what users do next. Incorporate clear CTAs in the layout (e.g., a contact button in the header, a signup form in key sections) to connect SEO efforts to business results (generate new leads, signups, sales). 

Ultimately, effective content layout is about managing your workflow and aligning design and SEO early so the structure supports real user journeys and search visibility. Without that, you’re just hoping good content finds its way.

We applied all of this in a recent client project: clean layout, clear CTAs, structured content, and each page focused on a specific goal. As a result, a site not only looked good but delivered measurable business outcomes.

Accessibility (Bonus: it boosts SEO)

Designing with accessibility in mind not only widens your audience (which is reason enough) but also tends to improve SEO. Some key practices:

• Alt text on images: Ensure every image has descriptive alt text that explains the image or its function. This helps visually impaired users and gives search engines context (and a chance to rank your images in Google Images). For example, an image of your product should have alt text like “Red running shoes – model X”.

• Readable and navigable design: Use easy-to-read fonts with sufficient color contrast, and ensure the site can be fully navigated via keyboard (for those who can’t use a mouse). This makes your site welcoming to all users and helps search crawlers, too.

• Follow accessibility standards: Adhere to guidelines like WCAG 2.1 AA and use ARIA labels for any custom elements. Designing to standard ensures your site works for everyone; search engines notice that quality.

Local and on-page SEO elements

If your business has any local aspect or your site includes contact info, incorporate these into the design:

• NAP info and contact links: Always include your business Name, Address, and Phone number on the site (e.g., in the footer or Contact page) in crawlable text, and make phone/email links clickable, just like with effective email marketing designs. These basics help customers reach you and signal to Google that your site is tied to a real local business.

• ‍Local keywords in content: If you serve specific regions, weave those location names into your page titles, headers, and content where relevant. For instance, mention your city in your homepage title or service pages.) This helps you rank for local searches without needing separate pages for each location.

• ‍Map and schema markup: Embedding a Google Map (for a physical location) on your site can improve user experience and local SEO signals. Additionally, implement LocalBusiness schema markup for your business information. These steps give search engines extra context about your local presence.

Building trust with E-E-A-T signals

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Basically, it’s Google’s way of quantifying how credible and useful a site is.

Design can amplify these signals:

• Team/author bios: If you have a blog or team page, include photos and bios highlighting experience and credentials. For example, an author bio on a blog post might mention “10+ years in content marketing” or specific certifications. On our own site, we also include writer bios to reinforce credibility. This design element shows both users and Google that real experts are behind the content.

• Case studies and testimonials: Integrate real-world results and client feedback into your design. Showing success stories (case studies, portfolio highlights) alongside customer testimonials or reviews helps prove your expertise and build trust with new visitors. For example, on Eleken’s site, we created a dedicated case study page that paired project details with direct client feedback, a powerful way to earn trust.

• Trust badges and essentials: Make sure the “boring” trust signals (HTTPS lock, privacy policy, terms and conditions, any industry badges or awards) are clearly visible, just like we did in the Terms and Conditions section for our client. These elements reassure users that you’re legitimate.

• Fresh, transparent content: Show that your site is kept up-to-date and transparent about who’s behind it. This means having dates on blog posts (so readers see that the content is current), listing authors on articles, and perhaps an informative About page, as in the example below. An outdated-looking site with no human touch can undermine trust, even if you have great content.

Use the right tools during design

Don’t be shy about using free business tools to check your work during the design process – they’ll help you catch issues early. For example:

• Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse: Test your site’s performance and Core Web Vitals early to catch any speed issues during design.

• Screaming Frog (SEO Spider): Crawl your site like a search engine to visualize the structure and find broken links or missing SEO tags.

• Google Search Console: Monitor crawl errors, mobile usability problems, and performance metrics even before launch. Use it during redesigns to ensure critical pages are indexed and nothing important is broken.

• Accessibility scanners (Axe, WAVE): These tools flag accessibility issues (like low contrast or missing alt text) so you can fix them pre-launch. They're also great for catching code structure problems.

• Schema Markup Helpers: Use a structured data generator (e.g., Google’s Markup Helper) to create JSON-LD for business information, reviews, FAQs, etc. Adding schema during design can enhance your search snippets.

Redesigns that kill SEO and how to avoid them

Now let’s talk about the nightmare scenario: the pretty redesign that kills your SEO. Sadly, we’ve had more than one client come to us after launching a beautiful new site with this “we redesigned and our traffic vanished” story. Yes, it is too common but almost always avoidable.

What goes wrong? Here are a few classic SEO-killing redesign mistakes:

• Removing critical content: Deleting or hiding high-value content like a blog or case studies section, or replacing detailed info with generic fluff. If pages that used to bring in organic traffic get axed or buried, expect rankings to drop.
  
  
• Breaking URL structure (no redirects): URL changes are fine if you set up proper 301 redirects from the old pages to the new. But if you don’t redirect, all those old links and Google listings will hit dead ends, torpedoing your SEO.

Redesigns are a chance to level up your site with a cleaner layout, stronger messaging, and better UX. But without the right prep, they can also wipe out years of SEO progress in a single launch.

How do you avoid these SEO-killing redesign mistakes?

Here's how to keep your redesign from breaking what’s already working:

• Start with an SEO audit.

Before sketching a single wireframe, audit your current site. Use tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs to determine which pages bring in the most traffic. These are your top performers; keep them front and center in your redesign strategy.

• Protect your top pages.

Don’t delete high-performing content unless you have a rock-solid reason and a better alternative. If you need to change URLs, always set up 301 redirects to preserve rankings and backlinks.

• Retain your SEO foundations. 

Preserve things like heading structure, internal linking, meta tags, and structured data. A redesign is your chance to polish, not erase, the elements that make your site visible in search.

• Plan collaboratively.

Work closely with an SEO specialist or use a good toolkit like Screaming Frog, PageSpeed Insights, or Lighthouse. Having an SEO lens during planning can save you from painful rework later.

This proactive approach will help you avoid disaster, launch a new site that looks great, and maintain/improve your search presence.

So, how to design a site for SEO?

Web design and SEO should be baked into every stage of the design process from day one. That’s how it should be for any website owner serious about ranking, performance, and conversions.

At TodayMade, we’ve refined this process over the years of building high-performing websites, and it works. Below is the internal checklist our team follows to make sure every site we launch is built to rank, convert, and scale.

The SEO design checklist

In case we haven’t made it obvious by now, here’s a quick checklist of key things to remember. If your website designer (or design team) isn’t checking these boxes, they’re basically guessing (and your SEO will suffer):

• Clear Site Structure: Logical navigation and URL silos (group related content clearly).
  
  
• Fast Loading Speed: Optimize images, code, and hosting for quick loads.
  
  
• Mobile-Friendly Design: Responsive layouts that work on all devices (mobile-first).
  
  
• Semantic HTML: Clean, proper markup with a coherent heading hierarchy.
  
  
• Local SEO Elements: NAP info, Google Maps, local keywords (if relevant).
  
  
• Accessibility: Alt text, good contrast, keyboard nav – make it usable for everyone.
  
  
• Schema Markup: Structured data for richer search results (JSON-LD for business info, FAQs, etc.).
  
  
• E-E-A-T Trust Signals: Showcase expertise & trust (bios, case studies, reviews, HTTPS).
  
  
• Strong CTAs: Clear calls-to-action on pages to drive conversions (not just pretty pages).

When you start with website design and SEO in the early phase, you set yourself up for long-term success. The site will be easier to find, more engaging to use, and more effective at achieving your business goals. That’s the ultimate win-win in web design: a gorgeous site and a marketing powerhouse. Don’t settle for less. 

If you're ready to launch a site that ranks, converts, and supports your goals, TodayMade is here to help. Reach out to us to build a website that works, not just looks good.